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AMERICA DURING AND 
AFTER THE WAR 



By SENOR don IGSACIO 9ALDER6N 

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister PUnipotentiary, from Bolivia 



WASHINGTQN, D. C. 
1919 



MAY 12 1919 






America During and After the War 

By IGNACIO CALDER5n 

We all know that the tempest is past, and yet 
the world cannot reaUze the appalling tragedy that 
during more than four years drenched the earth with 
blood, made millions of people homeless and starving 
wanderers, violated women's purity and clouded the 
children's sunshine, filhng their young hves with 
sorrow. 

Many centuries of constant struggle for freedom 
have been necessary to redeem mankind from the 
thraldom of autocratic supremacy. The world can- 
not be turned back to the times in which the sword 
and the whims of one man were the law. 

When it was hoped that the wonderful inventions 
that brought all nations closer together had assured 
peace and nobody suspected the impending calamity; 
the criminal ambition of the German junkers and their 
Kaiser opened suddenly the flood gates of war. The 
teachings of the herr professors, the preachers and 
writers have misled the German people into the con- 
ceit that it was their mission to dominate the world: 
deutchland uher alles. 

Not since Satan's pride brought upon himself eternal 
damnation was greater misery inflicted in the world. 
The lords of might have no conception of the transcend- 
ent power of justice and could not perceive how much 
stronger than force is the spirit of freedom in a contest 
for right. From the moment that treaties were turned 
into scraps of paper and all moral laws made subser- 
vient to the necessities of war, Germany lost it morally. 

(1) 



2 IGNACIO CALDERON 

With proud confidence in the great mihtary machine 
prepared and perfected by almost half a century of 
constant endeavor, the enemies of right started for 
the conquest of the world, sure of an easy victory. 

The unexpected and heroic resistance of Belgium, 
that refused to become an accomplice to the criminal 
enterprise and defended her honor with glory, thwarted 
all the plans of easy victory. The enraged savage 
wreaked the most cruel vengeance on the unhappy 
nation. Mankind saw with horror the burning of 
towns, the wholesale murder of defenseless people, the 
revolting maltreatment of women and the torturing 
of httle children in the midst of a carnival of incredible 
iniquity, the memory of which will remain as one of 
the most fearful visitations on a country defending its 
existence. 

During the whole war Germany made itself infamous 
by the unscrupulous use of forbidden methods, such 
as poison gas, the sinking of passenger ships and other 
abominable practices. History will record them as 
the vilest degradation of human nature. 

In the African jungles are found certain trees whose 
shadow is death for the unwary traveler resting under 
them. The influence of military autocracy has in 
like manner killed in the German hearts every senti- 
ment of right, justice or mercy, and left nothing but 
hatred and degradation. The loftiest ideals of love 
and beauty, the noble impulses that open our hearts 
to understand and commune with all the harmonies 
of nature are the privilege of free nations such as the 
ancient Greek and Roman repubhcs, who lived in the 
spirit of freedom and lofty ideals. Autocracy and 
force never produced anything but slavery and abjection. 

The peoples of the American republics registered an 
unanimous protest against the German kind of war- 



AMERICA DURING AND AFTER THE WAR 3 

fare, and if some of the governments omitted the 
official sanction to the public sentiment it was never- 
theless very clearly expressed. 

A nation Hke the United States, foundea, grown 
and wholly dedicated to liberty and right from the 
earliest days of its existence, could not remain long 
passive when, after repeated warnings against the 
growing disregard of the fundamental right of free 
use of the seas, Germany inaugurated the unrestricted 
sinking of ships and committed wholesale murder and 
devastation. In the name of justice and in vindica- 
tion of its national honor, the United States accepted 
the challenge and took its place alongside of the 
defenders of freedom. 

President Wilson, in his admirable message to 
Congress asking the declaration of war, made it 
plain that on entering in it, the United States had no 
special interest, aimed at no advantage or material 
gain, but was going to fight together with glorious 
France, free England and noble Italy, for the sacred 
principles of right and justice, to make the world, as 
he expressed it, safe for democracy. 

Congress by practically unanimous vote declared 
war, and the whole nation by a great spontaneous im- 
pulse answered with determination the call of duty 
and sacrifice. It was a unique attitude and an in- 
spiring outburst of love of right and freedom. 

How noble the sentiments that awakened this 
Nation to put all its enormous financial and indus- 
trial power into action! BiUions upon bilhons of 
money were appropriated, every factory offered to 
take the work of war preparation, and milhons of 
citizens eagerly offered themselves to enlist in the 
great army of democracy, while thousands and thous- 
ands of devoted and heroic women went as nurses 



4 IGNACIO CALDER6n 

to take care of the wounded and soften their pain 
with sweet and loving tenderness. It is no wonder 
the the world acclaimed President Wilson as the true 
interpreter of the aspirations of the oppressed, and the 
United States as the new crusader for right and 
justice. No nation deserves greater honor and merits 
more respect. The United States has glorified de- 
mocracy by its decisive concourse in the war which 
brought the final defeat and humiliation to the barbaric 
invaders. 

The war that has so happily ended leaves behind 
unparalleled distress and sorrow. Who can appre- 
ciate the desolation of lost homes, and broken hearts; 
the grievous memories of insults and hardships en- 
dured? God grant that the blood so heroically and 
generously spilled, and the bitter tears so abundantly 
shed, be compensated by the growth of the spirit of 
brotherhood, love, justice and peace amongst nations 
and individuals, bound together in one common 
endeavor for progress and happiness. 

One of the most important peace proposals is the 
formation of a ''League of Nations." A general and 
universally accepted and binding agreement on prin- 
ciples of acknowledged importance would no doubt 
be a very strong element to preserve peace. The 
respect of the independence and sovereignty of nations, 
compulsory arbitration of all international questions, 
the formation of a permanent tribunal to adjudicate 
them; the reduction and prohibition of increasing 
armaments, and such other principles that are of uni- 
versal application, might profitably be the subjects of 
a League of Nations. The Old World has many 
complicated questions, concerning which we in America 
have no special interest, and which I think ought to 
be settled by the nations concerned in a spirit of justice 



AMERICA DURING AND AFTER THEI^WAR 5 

and self determination, taking into account their racial 
affinities and traditions. 

The republics of the New World have no secular 
antagonisms or wrongs to redress. Having acquired 
independence by their own efforts after the long and 
heroic fight for emancipation, they inherited the 
sacred trust to preserve freedom and keep inviolate 
the legacy of peace, justice and liberty. 

The Pan American Union is already a League of 
American republics formed to develop and encourage 
their progress and friendship. I think that its sphere 
of action ought to be extended to the settlement of 
pending questions by peaceful methods. 

The only differences that threatened and still 
threaten the peace of the continent are the boundary 
disputes, but most of them have been already ad- 
justed. Interpreting the sentiments of the American 
republics, Argentine and Chile erected 'way up on 
the summit of the Andes the famous statue of Christ 
with the vow of perpetual peace. 

If there is one obstacle to the settlement of the 
still pending boundary questions, it is the wrong con- 
ception of national honor. Some of the most stub- 
bornly contested of them are about out-of-the-way 
territories of no actual value. With the better train- 
ing of public opinion, and a more sensible way of 
looking into those questions, their settlement would 
become very easy. I am confident that with the 
development of means of communication and travel, 
easier intercourse, the growth of commercial relations 
and the natural progress of enUghtened public opinion, 
the day will come when the American republics, in- 
stead of quarreling about boundaries, will abolish them 
and form one great confederation based on the ideals 
that awaken in our soul the love of Uberty, justice 



6 IGNACIO CALDEr5n 

and peace, and of whatever is generous, beautiful and 
divine. 

In the growth and development of the various re- 
pubUcs there has been a marked difference in their 
progress, increase of population and wealth; but that 
is principally due to special circumstances, such as 
more advantageous location, better facilities of inter- 
course with other countries and the influx of immigra- 
tion. Internal disturbances, fortunately disappear- 
ing, have in no small degree contributed to the back- 
wardness of some of the republics. Revolutions and 
mihtary dictatorships have been a blight, but under 
the American league of nations they could be sup- 
pressed by agreements that, without infringing on 
the sovereignity of any country would discourage all 
irregular governments, and more especially the un- 
fortunate practice of presidential reelection by fraud 
and imposition. 

While in the Old World the so-called first-class powers 
have been a permanent menace to the safety of the 
small countries, and the doctrine of equilibrium and 
spheres of influence has subordinated the rights and 
national aspirations of the minor countries to the con- 
venience of the stronger powers, the republics of 
America know not such dependency. The democratic 
doctrine of the equality of men and nations is the 
cornerstone of their existence. 

It is a great credit to the United States that Presi- 
dent Wilson, faithfully interpreting the sentiments of 
the Nation, has again and again affirmed the respect 
for the sovereignty of every repubhc, no matter how 
weak or smaU. 

These declarations of the most powerful and rich 
democracy that ever existed is the solid garantee of 
peace in the New World. All attempts to introduce in 



AMERICA DURING AND AFTER THE WAR 7 

America the system of forming groups of republics 
assuming the right to estabhsh pohcies suitable to 
their convenience, is an attempt to pervert the basic 
right of absolute self control recognized to each and 
every one of the American nations. 

If there is one sentiment that is most universally 
and more deeply cherished in the republics of America, 
it is the love of their independence and sovereignty. 

The unfortunate designation by some writers of the 
so-called A. B. C. powers, in the sense of superiority, 
is something that we absolutely repudiate as an at- 
tempt to create distinctions, apt to foment a pohcy 
of discord and rivalry. We are convinced that the 
whole alphabet of the republics form a union of equally 
sovereign and democratic nations, whose ideals are 
mutual respect, right and liberty. 

When the greatest free democracy of the world has 
so brightly illuminated the splendor of the stars of its 
unbeaten flag fighting for the freedom of the oppressed 
nations, there is no room in our America for other 
principles than those that President Wilson has pro- 
claimed as the creed of the people of the United States, 
and the whole world is eagerly making its own. 

The war with all its horrors has been hke a destruc- 
tive cyclone, that, while leaving in its path desolation 
and ruins, purifies the air, awakening dormant energies 
that call for a common effort and mutual help. 

I will state in conclusion that it is my belief that 
the true brotherhood of man will come only when we 
instill in every child's mind, in the heart and soul of 
every man and woman, the conviction that love, 
liberty and justice are the highest ideals that make 
life worth hving and represent the true conception of 
our mission on earth. It will then be easy to form a 
real league and a brotherhood of man and nations, 



8 IGNACIO CALDER5n 

all united in a league of hearts in the hope of seeing 
the dawn of that era of peace and good will, of freedom 
and justice, for which many miUions of brave soldiers 
have given their lives so gloriously. 
Let us hope, not in vain. 

December 28, 1918. 



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